Glorifying the (Non)Existed industrial past
Little Dragon Nostalgia
Horta Fu Yat Him
Glorifying the (Non)Existed industrial past
Little Dragon Nostalgia The rising instability of job and time security at Tertiary time suggested by economist Guys Standing is a relative conceptual comparison to the post-war industrial age. Back then, labours in the capitalist society did seemingly enjoy a more standard and manageable working hours and procedures along the production line. The status of late 20th century industrial capitalism was arguably an optimized production model with infiltration of welfare ideas from the Bloc. To Hong Kong, the city enjoyed the status of being one of the Four Little Dragon in East Asia. As a post-90s, I always imagine the age of industrial capitalism in Hong Kong was a better age as the economy are less external relied. Labour inputs are paid on scale etc. Yet, the way of thinkings is ungrounded without a solid proving method. Reflected from my previous school projects, I may fall into the trap of Nostalgia- an act of romanticize the past.
The emotion of nostalgia could be linked to everyday’s urban experience. The adaptive renovation of old factories has transformed the experience of Secondary time. Yet, the restorative approach of designs have falsified the new experience is the old image. This booklet departs from a simple documentation to the restorative projects on the Little Dragon’s industrial sites, the ordinary industrial landscape, to the industrial ruins in the city. Perhaps, a new narrative could be constructed to understand the urban experience in the age of being the Little Dragon.
Writen on December 2018
Horta Fu Yat Him
Restorative Nostalgia The Mills, 45 Pak Tin Par St, Tsuen Wan (Former Nan Fung Textile Limited) “Puts emphasis on nostos (returning home) and proposes to rebuild the lost home and patch up the memory gaps.� The collection starts with the recent renovation project of Nan Fung Textile. The project attempts to restore and glorify the past industrial achievement in Hong Kong, and closing the gap of imagination of the less glory sides of how the industries operated as a result of commercial restorative nostalgia. As described by Svetlana Boym in The Future of Nostalgia, the past experience created is selective. A more critical experiencing of the industrial urbanism maybe required which begins the narratives in the following chapters.
The Habitable Kwong Loong Tai Building,1018 Tai Nan W St, Cheung Sha Wan Hung Cheong Factory Building, Kwong Cheung Street, Cheung Sha Wan The nature of post-war Hong Kong industries were labour-intensive by benefiting from influx of migrants. Hand assembles of consumer products were the major industrial activities, which requires certain degree of quality control. The factory building are designed with minimum habitable condition to mitegate any environmental disturpts. Sun-shader were commonly employed to shaded the high tropical sun. More recently, the factory buildings are studied to convert into temporary housing due to the housing shortage in the cities. These habitable feature of the humancentred production buildings got potential to offer a habitable spatial quality to dwellers.
The Non-Habitable Kowloon Godown, 1 Kai Hing Rd, Kowloon Bay Kerry Hung Kai Warehouse ,3 Fat Tseung St, Cheung Sha Wan Chung Dah Godown Building, 115 King Lam St, Cheung Sha Wan Accomodated the production, storage of ready-for-export products were highly demanded in the city. The godown buildings are scattered around the industrial districts with distinct identity- giant of non-habitable blocks. Minimum window opening are placed in the external facade as it is a non-human space. It also avoid over-heating to the cargos such that it can be preserved in good condition. In the early industrial decline, these buildings sustain as Hong Kong role of entrepot rehabitated. Yet, when better regional ports are developed, the importance of godown no longer existed.
Inflexibility of Big Carlsberg Hong Kong Logistics Centre, 1 Kin Fung Circuit, Tuen Mun Former Bus bodies assemble Depot A factory may considered to be flexible with big and extensive floor area. Full production line could be organize within the same place which require less transportation of parts. However, the advanced global logistic system could organize parts' production in different part of the world at even a cheaper cost, which result in the model fade out of one factory full production. With competition of land and the possibility of re-zone, this big factory become an attractive target to redevelop with easy purchase of all ownerships. Big, as a result, will become inflexible to adaptive transform with the flexible option of demolition.
Production Expressed as Form Kowloon Flour Mills,161 Hoi Bun Road, Kwun Tong With the restriction on land development and nature resources in Hong Kong, heavy industries were unwelcome in the city. Yet, production of dairy products were still necessary as the city was less accessible to external supplies. Therefore, factory with bigger machines and storage tanks were appeared in the town to satisfy the damand of dairy products. The complex production process from unloading materials, storage and back of houses can be easily expressed due to the contracting nature of production processes. Compared to the generic light manufactures, these building could easily become a landmark with the easy regonition of their appearance.
Typeface as Identity Hing Fung Printing & Dyeing Factory,18-20 Pun Shan Street, Tsuen Wan Yuen Fat Godown, 1 Fat Tseung St, Cheung Sha Wan Wing Ming Industrial Centre, 15 Cheung Yue St, Cheung Sha Wan While the rest of the factories are handling production of small products where machines involved are typically room sized, the expression of the production become not possible. Therefore, bold typeface is used to express the production and owners of the factory buildings. At the age where computer-cut Chinese signage was uncommon, the typeface are hand-written and crafted into plates. It creates at least some distincted visual impacts from other factories.
The 9.5 Multiples Playmates Factory Building, 1 Tin Hau Rd, Tuen Mun Delya Industrial Center, Shek Pai Tau Rd, Tuen Mun Industrial sectors are planned to be high in density. Even in New Town, 9.5 times plot ratio is implemented as standard principle when granting factory plots. With the feature of OEM model of production, the requirement of production space become uncertained. Extended floor plates are employed for easy organization holdings, these industrial buildings are typically extruded to around 9-15 storey, less building recession or setback is provided in design. As a result, they composed an excessive dense and inpermeable industrial landscape. Access to daylight and ventilation is limited in most of these industrial buildings.
Anarchist Expression Ko Fai Industrial Building,7 Ko Fai Road, Yau Tong Luen Hing Factory Bldg, 109 King Lam Street, Lai Chi Kok In these giant industrial blocks which is designed for OEM holdings, the ownership is divided into fragments. Post occupation alternation became common and not managed to organize into a unifromed expression. A more common one is the addition of air-conditioners where the A/C platforms were added and installed seperatly. Some OEM holdings may even hang their signage to exposed their existance but in vain. As a result, the alternations have composed a vibrant expression to the buildings which a language is missed on the one hand, but is arguably classified as anarchist expression on the other hand.
Beyond Utility Gee Hing Chang Industrial Building, 16 Cheung Yue St, Cheung Sha Wan Meyer Industrial Building, 2 Chong Yip Road, Kwun Tong The post-war factory buildings in Hong Kong are considered as polluted grey-scape where they are isolated from the rest of the city for pure production utility. Employment of non-utilitarian expression style may seems unnecessary as a result of positioning the buildings where not design for outsiders. Except shading features, most of their facades were designed just to fit with the Buildings Codes. There were only rare cases of these industrial buildings are designed with variated elevation pattern as they are exposed to major elevated railways or roads.
Incubator of Small Enterprise Wan Cheong Factory Estate, 781-783, Lai Chi Kok Road, Kowloon Chai Wan Factory Estate,12 Lee Chung St, Chai Wan The government-built factory estates have been a policy in helping Small Enterprise to grow their business. With affordable rent of micro sized units, a number of cottage sized holdings were blossomed across the city. Yet, there was no active follow-up policy to assist the cottage industry to expend to a more competitive one. Most of them could still maintain their business as the city was still in a development stage, but they no longer be abled to survive as they can be easily faded out by regional competition. Today, the demand of these afforable production space no longer existed. For instance, Chai Wan Factory was converted to temporary housing.
Reflective Nostalgia Edward Wong Industrial Centre ,13 Wang Wo Tsai Street, Tsuen Wan Well Town Industrial Building, 13 Ko Fai Rd, Yau Tong “dwells in algia (aching), in longing and loss, the imperfect process of remembrance.� The narrative of the past industrial urbanism ends here with two buildings which are below maintainance. One is even in abandon condition which is ready for redevelopment. With the aging marks on the concrete, broken glasses, one may start to trace the activies being happened there. They open a imagination to the past image of Hong Kong as the Asia's Little Dragon. It was an age with glory growth rate, yet it was not an easy age, so as the urban experience in the industrial greyscape.
Printed and Published on December 2018 First Edition Published in Hong Kong SAR,China through issuu.com Photographed and edited by Fu Yat Him, Horta Email: hortabidac@yahoo.com.hk Tel: +852 6380 6222 28 pages All rights reserved